me and popular music

I came across a series of YouTube videos labeled "Most Popular Song Each Month in the ..." for each decade from the 1950s to the 2010s. I don't know on what basis it was determined what was the most popular song for each month, but it seems a pretty good sampling of 12 songs per year, and a chance for me to test my knowledge of popular music. I listened through the whole set and counted up the songs that I recognized, that I know I'd heard before, and also the number of those that I positively like, that I've deliberately gone and listened to because I enjoy them. (A few that I recognize I positively hate, but only a few.)

What I couldn't count from clips of a few seconds is ones that I didn't know but would come to like if I listened to them a few times in full. All I can say of that is that there were more clips that sounded likely in the 2000s than in the 1990s.

I divided up the years by meaningful chunks.

1950-63, i.e. before the Beatles: A lot of nightclub crooner types in here, as well as (from 1956) Elvis Presley, whom I don't care for at all and, it turns out, know little of. I recognized a few instrumentals from the lush Muzak radio stations that my father liked to listen to in my youth. And some songs I know from Allan Sherman or Stan Freberg parodies. Rate: know about 3.25/year, like about .75/year.

1964-70: full of Beatles songs, every one of which I like. And a lot of others as well. (Top favorite non-Beatles song, probably "Downtown.") Though most of my knowledge of this period is retroactive - I wasn't listening to current pop music at the time - I'm apparently a child of my generation in finding this the heart of my pop-music tastes. Rate: know about 9/year, like about 6/year. Remember that's out of 12 total per year.

1971-80: this is the period I was in high school and college, so I was hearing a lot of incidental pop music even though I wasn't seeking it out, and styles were turning against my taste in the later 70s: though I know a lot of songs from that period, except for the weird outlier of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" (1978) (what's that doing in here?), there's nothing I really like in between McCartney's "Band on the Run" (1974) and Lennon's Double Fantasy songs (1980). Rate: know about 5/year, like about 1/year.

1981-85: This is the sole period in my life when I was actually listening to current pop music of my own volition. A couple songs I really liked hit the charts - one of them is here - and I kept on until the good stuff dribbled off a few years later. Rate: know about 6/year, like about 2/year.

1987-present: A true desert. I know almost none of this stuff, though when listening to these clips there's a fair number of post-2000 songs that I expect I might come to like if I ever heard them in full, but the point is, I never have, and I'm not moved to seek them out. One that I did, it turned out I wished I hadn't. For the 90s in particular, almost everything I know is either because it's a remake of an older song I know or else because Weird Al parodied it. But of the 6 songs I list as liking, most I really like. Top favorite: "Orinoco Flow" by Enya (1988) (what's that doing in here?). Rate: know about 1/year, like about .25/year.